Juggling frenzy spawns celebrity

Who knew? Patrick Dempsey started out his young entertainment career juggling in Buckfield, Maine. On an Australian news site, he is interviewed about his upcoming film, Enchanted, and reveals all:

Q: Is it true that you began your entertainment career as a juggler, when you were in your teens?
A: "As a kid I started off juggling and loved it. I was second in the International Jugglers' competition in the junior division in 1982. I loved ski racing, I was a big skier and I remember my ski teacher was in a vaudeville troupe and he happened to be juggling and I told him I would like to learn, I was naturally good at it. I went home and practiced all night and he introduced me to some great clowns and jugglers. Then suddenly the town where I lived in Maine had become the hotbed for a new Vaudevillian movement and juggling opened a whole new world for me and started me off as a performer."
[Source]

There's an extensive 2002 interview with him about his Maine connections here, and about his home on Harpswell Neck, on aroundmaine.com, from Portland Magazine's Mark Griffin.